With Punk, he would likely get a big money deal and if they are serious about the health insurance that's an added bonus on top. I don't know how his UFC deal is structured but Dana might allow him to work with AEW like Bobby did with Bellator and TNA & Brock with WWE and UFC

A few things I was thinking about. Are Cody and the Bucks going to be booking themselves on top because that will be detrimental. Does Hangman have any position within the company as that might cause an issue, same if Kenny comes in and Marty down the road. Ideally if they are EVPs then they need to limit their TV presence because otherwise it comes across as like a vanity project.

Say they want to do an event in Japan, will New Japan block them from the Tokyo Dome?. I was also wondering will they run weekly TV, will it be live, are they doing house shows/live events, will there be monthly PPVs or just a few one off PPVs like All In or Double or Nothing?. Because they need to work that all out if they want to really compete.

I'm 110% behind them, but with WCW they had that foundation and fan base in place before Hogan came in and Hall & Nash later on. Starting from the ground up is going to be really tough. The Elite have a loyal fan base but wrestling isn't in a boom period right now so you're asking a niche audience to accommodate another promotion. There's WWE, NXT, Impact, ROH and NJPW on most fans plate already to keep up with each week so adding another could be overkill.

Really AEW should have been like the old NWA and a umbrella to stage super shows under every few months or so with the top talent around the world not signed to WWE apart of it. Going weekly and putting that pressure on themselves when they've only had the one successful show so far could be too much.

Ideally they need an experienced mentor who knows the business inside out and who has no personal agenda but to help them put on a great product for the fans. But there's no one I can really think of right now who'd do that. Paul E is under a WWE deal I'm assuming and AEW doesn't really want the ECW 3.0 type label. I'm rooting for them to succeed but its just Im hoping they've thought everything through in detail.

Dana would let him wrestle. He doesn't want him to fight again, he only has him under a deal still so Bellator won't sign him. But with Punk his thing is if he were to comeback he wants to be the undisputed top wrestler in the company, but he also doesn't want a full time schedule, so that's tricky to have a guy be your champion but he only wrestles 6 times a year. With Brock it doesn't matter because WWE is established obviously and they have another brand with a world champion, so if you want to see a world title match you can watch Daniel Bryan. AEW besides Jericho is going to have to be an all hands on deck promotion for years to be established. Otherwise you're TNA with Sting not moving you up because he comes and goes as he pleases so you don't get momentum.

No, they can't block them from the Tokyo Dome as its not exclusive like some arenas in the US and Canada are for WWE. New Japan is the only one running it because nobody else has been able to fill it since 2005 when NOAH peaked. WWE doesn't run it because they can't sell it out so it's a waste of money.

They aren't over with New Japan. Jericho and likely Omega are going to get deals to work both according to Meltzer last night. Omega isn't a sure thing yet since he signed no deal as his contract with NJ isn't over until the end of the month, but Jericho will be going back to Japan because he's said he wants to wrestle Tanahashi and Okada before he retires. But they do want to keep him and AEW obviously wants to bring in Okada and Tanahashi and others in for big events. So they are working out trying to do a double deal with them and ROH. But this is going to pissed ROH off so they really have to hold off anything until after the MSG show because they can't have heat with each other going into that. They might do a deal where NJ splits up wrestlers exclusive to ROH and AEW. Like Okada is only coming to the US for AEW but Naito can only do an ROH show, etc.

Thanks. Yea it seems AEW have their work cut out for them already, but they do have a fan base that wants them to succeed and also a billionaire backer. They kinda teased Kenny will be involved when they showed the "missing" phone at the end of Being the Elite. I do think they need New Japan on board to talent share, same with ROH et al. Really they need to having working agreements with everyone to have a real chance to succeed. If

There's talk Kevin Kelly might come aboard as a announcer too. I think JR would be better suited in talent relations. I would get Don Callis involved too and consider bringing in someone like Jake in for creative. No ones really ever gave him the ball and I think he'd come up with some intense angles. I like the concept of wins and losses they mentioned at the All in Rally, but putting it into practice will be tough. Because no talent wants to pick up a ton of losses and be a job guy/girl.

Plus it makes the main event picture set in stone already since it will be talent with most wins going up against each other. I think you need the element of surprise where you get an underdog pull off an upset title win like Santino did for example. If it's going to be pure competition, then in a predetermined environment that sort of defeats the object.

Plus say they bring in Brian Cage to be their Goldberg and he runs through the roster and doesn't win the title that doesn't make logical sense. So it's the tiny, micromanagement type of details and attention to detail they have to really work on. If they manage to get that right, then that will be great.

But even WWE with their history and resources can't do it so it's going to be an uphill battle. Plus if Kenny does go to WWE that'll knock them back since most fans assume he'll be on board. I assume their first event will be Double or Nothing so they have a bit of time to get it all together before May 25th.

They can't really keep Kenny Omega under wraps if he signs as soon as he doesn't turn up in WWE we'll know he's going to AEW. But Marty if his deal expires before then, you could have his arrival as a big deal. Double or Nothing is really their WrestleMania I and if it falls flat then that will seal their fate already. But I think they didn't turn down the WWE contracts for nothing and know what they are doing.

A TV deal isn't really essential but depending on their business model it is important. I'm hoping for an international TV deal. Sky Sports is unlikely considering their long time relationship with WWE but there's plenty of other options. I don't know if something like Amazon Prime, Netflix etc type thing would work. They need AEW available to as many fans as possible to bring in lapsed fans who stopped watching when WCW & ECW folded and also new fans.

The AEW announcement video has had 435,000 + viewers so far so there's definitely interest there. They just need that casual audience and wrestling to be "cool" again to bump that up to millions. I'm assuming their product will be TV-14 too so already that differentiates them from WWE.

Nobody is ever completely strict on the ranking system for pro wrestling. They all have dropped it since WCW in the early 90s. I think what they mean is they won't do 50-50 booking like WWE to where no one gets over because they have almost even win-loss records in feuds. So like if Hangman pins Jericho that will be a big deal and he will advance to a title shot, they won't have Jericho get his win back the next PPV.

Thanks, that makes more sense. I think they should keep track of win-loss records and put them on the AEW website. Wrestling never really put much stock in stats, so I think for non fans who might be intrigued, it clues them in what's going on. A "wild card" or "playoff" concept for those whose win-loss records aren't as high would be an interesting option too.

I'd push for the idea of bringing back the six man tag belts too especially if they do talent agreements with AAA/CMLL etc, I'm sure a Light Heavyweight division is a lock, as is tag team & heavyweight. I also like the idea of like having like a Race for the Pennant with the two wrestlers with the most wins face each other for a special AEW title to "conclude" the season. It would add a real competitive type element as WWE has no real beginning and ending, so at least then there'd be a end where the best wrestler of the year would be crowned, you'd have stats for that "season" and everything stars a new each "season" so everyone has a fair level playing field.

I think if they can get a big roster a G1 style tournament would be good since that's one of the best parts of New Japan and the win matters and is more impressive than the Royal Rumble. It also gives an excuse to do heel versus heel, babyface vs babyface and friend vs friend matches without splitting them up. It's also an easy way to set up angles since you can do an upset like Yano beating Suzuki to set up a feud people otherwise wouldn't care about but has a good dynamic of the fun loving goofy guy versus the killer heel.

I like the idea of a G1 style tournament. Interesting notes from the Observer. I didn't see Codys name mentioned so I'm assuming there wasn't the same interest in bringing him in or they knew he was definitely going to side with the Khan family so didn't bother putting an offer on the table.

Chris mentioned there's three potential TV deals out there and if they sign with them with making AEW "the real deal". He also mentions "Kenny, Cody and the Bucks" so it might confirm Kenny's involvement. Rumour is two of the TV deals are TBS and TNT. I'm guessing the other might be Spike/Paramount. HBO are doing a doc on Kenny Omega but I heard they are also doing a special on the Elite so if AEW went to HBO that would be huge.

They made him a big offer as well. He turned it down faster than the others because he's still mad about HHH telling him he'd never be a main eventer before he quit WWE.

I think TBS is more likely than TNT. They'd be pretty out of place on TNT. Granted so was Nitro, but that was on TNT because Ted Turner demanded it. I don't think they will have anyone be a champion for wrestling like Ted was. But the good side of that was they'll never get lazy and complacent like WCW because WCW had an attitude of they didn't have to work hard because they were always going to be on TBS due to Ted promising them that in 1988. Besides wanting to beat WCW Vince also had to work hard because they were almost cancelled by USA Network in 1997.

Thanks and yea TBS has been the network most mentioned. TBS is available to just over 90m households, TNT just over 89m, so there's not much difference. Say it's a network deal on the table (CW Network seems most likely as WWE is on Fox and I'm not sure CBS, NBC and ABC would be interested in showing wrestling when there's not a current boom period but who knows) that would already make them serious competition. Although CWs main demographic is 18-34 females and because of that SmackDown wasn't renewed in 2008. But the CW is apparently available to over 323m in the US so that would be massive and gives AEW a chance to reach even more people. I guess we'll hear soon enough once a TV deal is signed.

Thanks and yea TBS has been the network most mentioned. TBS is available to just over 90m households, TNT just over 89m, so there's not much difference. Say it's a network deal on the table (CW Network seems most likely as WWE is on Fox and I'm not sure CBS, NBC and ABC would be interested in showing wrestling when there's not a current boom period but who knows) that would already make them serious competition. Although CWs main demographic is 18-34 females and because of that SmackDown wasn't renewed in 2008. But the CW is apparently available to over 323m in the US so that would be massive and gives AEW a chance to reach even more people. I guess we'll hear soon enough once a TV deal is signed.

One thing is Cody is on CW Network with Arrow, so he could get a meeting. But CW is mostly aimed at teenage girls now, so it's probably not likely.

Funny you mention that. Their deals are up in March. But Reby was talking like Matt was in the midst of becoming an agent because of his pelvis fusion. But Jeff could go solo and that would be big for them since he's always popular. And then again, since Matt has two young kids maybe he'd like a lighter schedule. And he is good friends with the Bucks. And he can't be happy about how lousy WWE did his Broken gimmick, which was hugely over in TNA. Maybe he'd do a no house show deal where he wrestles on TV every other week and do his gimmick, which he is very proud of, the right way. So we will see.

Thanks, yea I heard he was thinking of retiring because of the pelvis fusion. Although he put out a tweet recently about getting back into the mix, or words to that affect. I think Matt would be a real good addition to creative for AEW and he could still do the Broken Hardyz skits. Jeff could still wrestle too and he has that loyal fan base so acquiring Matt and Jeff would be a smart move if they decide to go when their deals expire.